If the Inside Counts
by Koyoru
Summary: When a new girl shows up at the Blade Breakers high school she has a few problems in her life, mainly dealing with death. Will the talented Bladers be able to help her with her past? Or will she try to escape and succeed?


So, here we have another story by me. I hope you like it.

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**Disclaimer**: I dun own Beyblade.

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**_If the Inside Counts_**

**Chapter One: When You Meet One**

She sat waiting patiently in her math class. Waiting for the teacher to arrive, waiting for the students to come, and waiting for her life to end. On the outside, this girl looked normal, carefree, laid-back, easygoing and so many others. But inside, she was depressed, solemn and stoic. All of her problems had come rushing at her, such as her parent's divorce, her brother's murder, her sister's suicidal death and her grandfathers' death. She now lived with her mother, Kurenai Jinzo and her dog, Baki in a large mansion close to her school, Tenji High.

She was now 16, standing at 5'10" with wavy, waist length, white/silver hair and sad red eyes. She wore black cargo pants and a baggy black sweater. On the front of the sweater it read _'Touch me...'_ and on the back it said _'...and die.'_ In dripping red writing. Though, by first glance, it would look as though she couldn't hurt a fly. Her shoes were black sketchers and they looked quite old.

She watched warily as the students rolled in. She felt hot marks as people began to glance at her. She hated being the new kid, she hated going to school at all for that matter. It seemed like a waste of time except for the fact that science helped her beyblade techniques and math competitions made her think faster. She never made any really close friends, her only close friend had died and now she was afraid that someone would come to her and then leaves her with nothing, just like Kinaki and everyone else.

The class started and the teacher didn't even notice she was there. She acted like she knew what was going on; well actually, she did know what was going on. Her plan to blend and become unnoticed was working. Eventually, the teacher did notice though.

"Oh! The new student. When did you get here?" asked the teacher completely confused.

"I've been here since before you arrived." Whispered the girl somewhat timidly.

"Oh, alright then. What's your name dear?" asked the all too cheery Ms. Miyama.

"Alexiel. Alexiel Ichikawa." She said formally.

"Would you like to tell the class a little about yourself?" the teacher asked smiling.

Alexiel shook her head softly.

"Are you sure dear?" soothed Ms. Miyama.

"Well, I like to beyblade..." she said slowly.

"That's great!" the teacher said enthusiastically. "Maybe you could join the Beyblade team and-" she was cut off by the bell. "Oh well, I hope you all act nicely towards Ms. Ichikawa. I'll see you in two days class!"

The class nodded and was gone. Alexiel walked quietly to her locker and grabbed her books for Math. As she was walking, she seemed to walk into someone. It was a shock to her so she fell backwards and onto her butt.

"Sorry." She apologized softly.

"Hn." Grunted the other person.

Alexiel got up and continued walking not looking up once.

**1**

"Yo Kai, who was that?" asked Rei warmly.

"Some klutz." He said stiffly.

"Don't be so quick to judge." Tala warned.

"It was some girl that wasn't watching where she was going." Kai said exasperated.

"Right. Well we should be getting to math right about now. We've already been late three times and if we're late again we get Friday school." Tala added.

"I'm already in Friday school." Tyson whined loudly.

"Well if you weren't sleeping in class you wouldn't have gotten an automatic detention." Max said shrugging.

"Shut up Max." Tyson said angrily. "Anyways Tala's right. We should be getting to class now."

"Ya let's go." Rei said heading towards the classroom.

"How did we get here so fast?" asked Tyson curiously.

**2**

Alexiel sat in the back again and looked out the window. She sighed as she watched the cherry blossoms fall. _'Kinaki loved cherry blossoms.'_ Alexiel thought sadly. _'Dwelling on the past isn't doing me any good, but I can't let it go, I can't let her go, I can't let any of them go.'_ She sighed and felt a tear form on the corner of her eye. But she quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand. Here was not the place to cry.

This class was like the other. The teacher didn't notice her until later, much later. When she finally noticed, 60 minutes of class had already passed and everybody was working or chatting. When the introduction was done, she continued to look out the window with many emotions running through her mind.

"Hey there! I'm Max, you're new here right?" asked the boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a green shirt that sort of slid off his right shoulder a bit to reveal a strap of his grey overalls.

"Ya, I'm Alexiel." She said looking at him and smiling with a tint of sadness in her eyes.

"Are you okay? I saw you brush away a tear earlier." He asked with concern written all over his face.

"I'm fine. Just being caught up by the past and being torn by the future." Her wisdom sounding words confused Max.

"Oh, ok. Hey, you should meet my friends!" he said excitedly. "Hey guys! Come meet the new girl!" he shouted at a group of guys.

"Uh... Max, I don't really need to meet your friends, or rather, I don't think they want to meet me." Alexiel replied as the guys turned and waved but made no move to get up.

"But you really do! They're great guys once you get to know them." Max said sounding excited.

"Max they probably think I'm weird as it is. It's ok, really. They're your friends, but they're not my friends. Anyways, I'll probably be out of your way by next year. I can last until then." She protested softly.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Max asked looking worried.

"My mom will probably make us move again. I'll live until then, at least I hope I will." She whispered mostly to herself.

Then the bell rang.

"Nice meeting you Max. Maybe I'll see you later." She said while getting up and leaving.

"So Max, who was that?" asked Rei smirking.

"No." Max whispered and chased after her.

"Hey Max wait up!" shouted Rei followed by the others.

**3**

Alexiel kept walking up to the third floor to her locker. She looked calm and unfazed but she felt sad and maybe a little angry. As she grabbed her lunch and headed down to the first floor someone ran straight into her.

"Sorry." She whispered helping up the other kid.

"Alexiel? Oh, um... want to eat lunch with me and my friends?" He asked kindly. He wanted to talk to her.

"No thanks." She said smiling at him warmly. "I saw a nice cherry blossom tree outside. I'm going to go sit under it and eat my lunch there. Thanks for offering though, I'll see you later Max." she smiled and waved as she walked away on him, again. She walked past all the guys running towards Max and headed outside.

"MAX! What is up with you?" shouted Tyson sounding out of breath.

"That girl. She's so different. Augh! I have to talk to her dammit! That's the second time I let her get away!" Max spun around and ran after Alexiel, again.

"What should we do?" asked Robert formally.

"Let's go chase him down and meet this girl." Enrique smirked.

"Sure, why not." Was Oliver's positive reply.

"Ok, let's go!" Tyson shouted as they ran outside.

**4**

_Sakura no ki..._

They reminded her of Kinaki so much. The pink petals were like the pink in her hair and the brown of the fresh wood was like the brown of her eyes.

Alexiel sighed and leaned against the tree. Why was fate so cruel to her? She could remember the letter perfectly.

**!!!**

_Dear Lex,_

_Sorry about leaving you behind, but I can't keep living like this. I'm going to jump off the bridge. I know you're going to come after me. And I really hope you don't try to stop me. I want you to be happy too. So please, just let it go, just this once. Always remember, I'll be waiting for you, and as always, I'm one step ahead of you. And Lex, just because I'm doing this, doesn't mean I want you to do this too, I want you to live, live the way you're supposed to, don't let me be a burden and hold you back, keep going, no matter what. I love you Lex, and I want what's best for you, so just don't follow me. _

_See you in fifty years or so,_

_Kin_

**!!!**

That letter hurt so much. Kinaki had deliberately hurt her. She always did. And then everything else happened.

Alexiel let one tear fall as she hung her head and lifted the bread to her lips, chewing slowly in small bites.

"Why are you crying?" came Max's concerned voice.

"Reasons untold to your sensitive ears." Alexiel replied smiling, but not looking up.

"Something happened and you don't want me to know. Why?" he asked sadly.

"I don't want you to worry, I don't want to be a burden." She said still not looking up.

"MAAAX!!!" Tyson shouted.

"Hey Tyson." Max answered half-heartedly.

"Max, you hardly know me, so don't worry about me." Alexiel interrupted while getting up.

"But I know I can help!" he protested angrily.

"No, you can't." she said simply and left, again, leaving Max thinking.

Max turned around and grabbed Alexiel's wrist. "Listen, I know you're hurt, but you can't seem to heal. I know you don't want me to worry, but if you don't tell me what's wrong, I can't not worry. I know you're probably leaving next year, but I want to make this the best year ever, I can't do that if you don't heal, and you can't heal unless someone helps you. I can help you if you tell me what's wrong, so just tell me what's wrong!" he said forcefully and hopefully.

Alexiel was still for a moment, her hand dropped, as did Max's. Everything and everyone, was silent. Then Alexiel spoke. "I've been dying since the day I was born, but I've been dying faster lately. There is no way to heal this slow death even though it's in everyone. True, I'm damaged emotionally, but I'm still living, still standing, there is no way to heal this wound, it's too deep and in too many pieces. Even if this is the best school year I've ever had, it won't really matter. I'll leave and this will be nothing more than a thought of the past. Just like I said before 'I'm being caught up by the past and being torn by the future'. But, I've stopped running, and I'm going to be hit hard I know. But I'm strong enough I'll live. So, just forget you met me Max, forget this ever happened. Just forget... It's going to be but a memory tomorrow, just forget it today to save you some time. I really don't want to burden you with my petty problems, go help the people that really need help." She finished walking away slowly, silently. Through all of this, she never lifted her head. Her head was always down. And now, so was Max's.

"Whoa, that was like a talk off." Tyson whispered to Kai who punched him in the head with a stress vein appearing. "What?" Tyson practically shouted but everyone just shook their heads.

"Max? You ok?" asked Rei softly, comfortingly.

"No." he said and walked off slowly.

"What should we do?" Tyson asked softly.

"Let him be by himself. He'll come when he's ready." Kai said advising the other boys.

"Good idea." Oliver said looking after his seemingly crest fallen comrade.

"Let's get to class." Johnny said walking to the school and not looking back.

Everybody nodded and headed to their classes.

**#$##$##$#**

Well, tell me what you think. No it's not going to be a Max/OC fic. And don't kill me because I haven't update Town Gangs and High School Jerks or Tears of Betrayal. This fic just.... well...it sort of came to me. And I really love the title .! Anyways, tell me what you think and, again, don't kill me or I won't be able to update TGaHJ!!!!


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